USA > New Jersey > Cape May County > Sketch of the early history of Cape May county, to accompany the geological report of the State of New Jersey for said county > Part 3
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A. Leaming's Memoirs.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
years, and departed this life in 1722. It will be seen by the county records and list of officers, that his descendants have acted a promi- nent part in the county, through the several generations that have passed away since 1691.
Henry Young came about the year 1713. He served the county as Judge of the Court for many years, and was a member of the Legislature ten years. Judge Young was an extensive landholder, Deputy Surveyor, and was Judge of the Court from 1722 till his death in 1767. He was Surrogate from 1743 to 1768. He was a surveyor and scrivener ; and no one, of those times, was more highly respected, or acted a more prominent and useful part. All of the name now in the county have descended from him.
Jonathan Swain and Richard Swain, of Long Island, were here in 1706, and soon after their father, Ebenezer Swain, came to Cape May, and followed whaling; Jonathan being a cooper for them. Their immediate descendants were Zebulon, 1721; Elemuel, 1724; Reuben, who died in the epidemic of 1713; and Silas, 1733. There was a Capt. Silas Swain in 1778, from whom has descended Joshua Swain, recently deceased, who held many important trusts in the county, as sheriff, member of the Legislature nine years, and a member of the convention to draft the new Constitution in 1844.
Cape May has never had the honor of but one representative in Congress, and he was the Hon. Thomas H. Hughes, from 1829 to 1833. He was likewise a member of the Legislature nine years.
In the Upper Township, William Goldens, Sen. and Jr., Rem Garretson, John and Peter Corson, John Willets, John Hubbard, and soon after Henry Young, were the pioneers, and at a later day John Mackey at Tuckahoe, and Abraham and John Vangilder at Petersburgh. In Dennis, being a part of the old Upper precinct, we find on the seaboard Joseph Ludlam, John Townsend, Robert Richards and Sylvanus Townsend, sons of John, Benjamin God- frey, and John Reeves, who were among the earliest settlers.
185
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Dennisville was settled upon the south side of the creek, in or about 1726, by Anthony Ludlam, and some few years afterwards the north side by his brother Joseph, both being sons of Joseph Ludlam, of Ludlam's Run, sea-side. David Johnson was here in 1765, and owned at the time of his death, in 1805, a large scope of land on the north side of Dennis Creek. James Stephenson purchased of Jacob Spicer, in the year 1748, the property now owned and occupied by his grandson Enoch, now aged over eighty- five years. East and West Creek were settled by Joseph Savage and John Goff, the last of whom was here as early as 1710. He had a son John, and his numerous descendants now occupy that portion of the county.
In the Middle Township, we may name on the seaboard, in the order in which they resided, Thomas Leaming, John Reeves, Henry Stites, Shamgar Hand, Samuel Matthews, and John Parsons. Wil- liam and Benjamin Johnson, Yelverson Crowell, and Aaron Leam- ing, first, were first at Goshen, the latter with the ostensible object of raising stock.
Cape May Court House has been the county seat since 1745. Daniel Hand presented the county with an acre of land, as a site for the county buildings erected at that time. But little improve- ment was made until within the present century, the last twenty- five years having concentrated a sufficiency of inhabitants to build up a village of its present extent and proportions, embellished by the county, with a new and commodious Court House, and by the people, with two beautiful new churches, one for the Baptist and an- other for the Methodist persuasion.
In the Lower Township, the greater proportion of those who lo- cated land (see list) were congregated, some at New England, some at Town Bank, and others at Cold Spring, and on the sea-shore above and below.
Cape Island was owned previous to 1700 by Thomas Hand, (who bought of William Jacocks,) Randal Hewit, and Humphrey Hughes.
186
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
Few settlements, and but little alteration occurred with Cape Island until recently.
Thomas H. Hughes, Jonas Miller, R. S. Ludlam, and the Messrs. McMakin, were among the first to venture the experiment of erecting large and commodious boarding-houses, who were fol- lowed by a host of others, and an impetus was given to the enter- prise, that has built up a city where a few years ago corn grew and verdure flourished.
As a watering-place it stands among the most favored on the coast, and the shore and bathing grounds are perhaps unrivaled.
In 1689, as noted in deeds to William Jacocks and Humphrey Hughes, the distance from the sea across the island to the creek was 265 perches. As the deed calls for a line of marked trees, it must have been on the upland, at which place the distance has been greatly reduced by the inroads of the sea since that time.
In 1756 Jacob Spicer advertised to barter goods for all kinds of produce and commodities, and among the rest particularly de- signated wampum. He offered a reward of £5 to the person that should manufacture the most wampum; and advertised, “ I design to give all due encouragement to the people's industry, not only by accepting cattle, sheep, and staple commodities in a course of barter, but also a large quantity of mittens will be taken, and indeed a clam shell formed in wampum, a yarn-thrum, a goose-quill, a horse hair, a hog's bristle, or a grain of mustard seed, if tendered, shall not escape my reward, being greatly desirous to encourage industry, as it is one of the most principal expedients under the favor of Heaven, that can revive our drooping circumstances at this time of uncommon, but great and general burden."
In another place he advertises for a thousand pairs of woolen stockings, to supply the army then in war with the French. He succeeded in procuring a quantity of the wampum, and before send- ing it off to Albany and a market, weighed a shot-bag full of silver coin and the same shot-bag full of wampum, and found the latter
187
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
most valuable by ten per cent. The black wampum was most esteemed by the Indians, the white being of little value.
Thompson, in his history of Long Island, page 60, says : "The immense quantity which was manufactured here may account for the fact, that in the most extensive shell banks left by the Indians, it is rare to find a whole shell; having all been broken in the process of making the wampum." This curious fact applies especially to Cape May, where large deposits of shells are to be seen, mostly contiguous to the bays and sounds ; yet it is rare to see a piece larger than a shilling, and those mostly the white part of the shell, the black having been selected for wampum.
Of the aborigines of Cape May little seems to be known. It has been argued they were very inconsiderable at the advent of the Europeans .* Plantagenet in 1648,t speaks of a tribe of Indians near Cape May, called Kechemeches, who mustered about fifty men. The same author estimates the whole number in West Jersey at eight hundred; and Oldmixon, in 1708, computes that " they had been reduced to one quarter of that number." It can- not be denied by any one who will view the seaboard of our county, that they were very numerous at one time here, which is evidenced by town plats, extensive and numberless shell banks, arrow heads, stone hatchets, burying grounds, and other remains existing with us. One of those burying grounds is on the farm formerly Joshua Gar- retson's, near Beesley's Point, which was first discovered by the plowman. The bones (1826) were much decomposed, and some of the tibia or leg bones bore unmistakable evidences of syphilis, one of the fruits presented them by their Christian civilizers. A skull was exhumed which must have belonged to one of great age, as the sutures were entirely obliterated, and the tables firmly cemented toge- ther. From the superciliary ridges, which were well developed, the frontal bone receded almost on a direct line to the place of the occipi- tal and parietal sutures, leaving no forehead, and had the appearance
* Gordon, p. 62
t Master Evelin's Letter.
188
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
of having been done by artificial means, as practiced at present on the Columbia among the Flat Heads. A jaw-bone of huge dimen- sions was likewise found, which was coveted by the observer ; but the superstitions of the owner of the soil believing it was sacrile- gious, and that he would be visited by the just indignation of Heaven if he suffered any of the teeth to be removed, prevailed on us to return it again to its mother earth.
In 1630, when sixteen miles square was purchased of nine Indian chiefs, it would infer their numbers must have been considerable, or so numerous a list of chiefs could not have been found on a spot so limited. Yet, in 1692, we find them reduced to fractional parts, and besotted with rum .*
A tradition is related by some of the oldest inhabitants, that in the early part of the eighteenth century, the remnant of Indians remaining in the county, feeling themselves aggrieved in various ways by the presence of the whites, held a council in the evening in the woods back of Gravelly Run, at which they decided to emi- grate ; which determination they carried into effect the same night. Whither they went no one knew, nor were they heard from after- wards. In less than fifty years from the first settlement of the county, the aborigines had bid a final adieu to their ocean haunts and fishing grounds.
Less than two centuries ago Cape May, as well as most other parts of our State, was a wilderness ; her fields and lawns were dense and forbidding forests ; the stately Indian roved over her domain in his native dignity and grandeur, lord of the soil, and master of himself and actions, with few wants and numberless faci- lities for supplying them. Civilization, his bane and dire enemy, smote him in a vital part; he dwindled before it as the reed before the flame ; and was soon destroyed by its influences, or compelled to emigrate to other regions to prolong for a while the doom affixed to his name and nation.
* Court Records and Proud's Pennsylvania.
189
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
The following (synopsis of an) Indian deed, and believed to be the only one that has been handed down, was found among the papers of Jacob Spicer, and is now in the possession of Charles Ludlam, Esq., of Dennisville.
It was given January 1st, 1687, by Panktoe to John Dennis, for a tract of land near Cape Island, viz. : " Beginning from the creek and so running up into the woodland, along by Carman's line to a white oak tree, at the head of the swamp, and running with marked trees to a white oak by a pond joining to Jonathan Pine's bounds. All the land and marsh lying and between the bounds above men- tioned and Cape Island."
The witnesses were Abiah Edwards and John Carman. Pank- toe's mark bore a striking resemblance to a Chinese character.
In 1758, the commissioners appointed by the legislature, of whom Jacob Spicer of our county was one, for the purpose of ex- tinguishing the Indian title in the State, by special treaty, met at Crosswicks, and afterwards at Easton, and among the lists of land claimed by the Indians were the following tracts in Cape May and Egg Harbor. "One claimed by Isaac Still, from the mouth of the Great Egg Harbor River to the head branches thereof, on the east side, so to the road that leads to Great Egg Harbor ; so along the road to the seaside, except Tuckahoe, and the Somers, Steelman, and Scull places."
" Jacob Mullis claims the pine lands on Edge Pillock Branch and Goshen Neck Branch, where Benjamin Springer and George Marpole's mill stands, and all the land between the head branches of those creeks, to where the waters join or meet."
" Abraham Logues claims the cedar swamp on the cast side of Tuckahoe Branch, which John Champion and Peter Campbell have or had in possession."
" Also, Stuypson's island, near Delaware River."
* Smith's New Jersey.
190
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
" At a court of the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, holden at the house of Robert Townsend, on the 2d day of April, 1723 :
" Justices Present .- Jacob Spicer, (first), Humphrey Hughes, Ro- bert Townsend, John Hand, Henry Young, William Smith.
" The county divided into precincts, excepting the Cedar Swamp ; the Lower precinct, being from John Taylor's branch to the middle main branch of Fishing Creek, and so down ye said branch and creek to the mouth thereof."
" Middle precinct, to be from the aforesaid John Taylor's branch to Thomas Leaming's, and from thence to a creek called Dennis Creek, and so down the said creek to the bay shore, along the bay to Fishing Creek."
" The Upper precinct, to be the residue of the said county, ex- cepting the Cedar Swamp,* which is to be at the general charge of the county."
In the year 1826, Dennis township was set off from the Upper township by a line from Ludlam's Run to the county line, near Lud- lam's Bridge.
Previous to the year 1745, the courts were held for the most part in private dwellings. At this date, however, a new house had been constructed upon the lot still occupied for the purpose, and the first Court held in it ; " On the third Tuesday of May, 1745, the follow- ing officers and jurors were present :
"Justices Present .- Henry Young, Henry Stites, Ebenezer Swain, Nathaniel Foster-Jacob Hughes, Sheriff ; Elijah Hughes, Clerk.
" Grand Jurors .- John Leonard, John Scull, Noah Garrison, Peter Corson, Joseph Corson, George Hollingshead, Clement Da- niels, Benjamin Johnson, Jeremiah Hand, Thomas Buck, Joseph Badcock, Isaiah Stites, Joseph Edwards, James Godfrey, Thomas
* Meaning the Long Bridge road over the Cedar Swamp, so essential to the people at that time as the only road off the Cape, and was always a county road until 1790, when the road over Dennis Creek, which is likewise a county road, was made where it now exists.
The toll-bridge over Cedar Swamp Creek, at Petersburgh, was built in 1762, which opened a more direct communication with the upper part of the county.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY,
Smith, Isaac Townsend, Ananias Osborne, Robert Cresse, and Thomas Hewitt."
From Thomas Chalkley's journal, a traveling Friend from Eng- land, dated 2nd month, 1726, it appeared to have been a wilderness between Cohansey and Cape May.
"From Cohansey I went through the wilderness over Maurice River, accompanied by James Daniel, through a miry, boggy way, in which we saw no house for about forty miles, except at the ferry; and that night we got to Richard Townsend's, at Cape May, where we were kindly received. Next day we had a meeting at Rebecca Garretson's, and the day after a pretty large one at Richard Town- send's, and then went down to the Cape, and had a meeting at John Page's ; and next day another at Aaron Leaming's ; and several ex- pressed their satisfaction with those meetings. I lodged two nights at Jacob Spicer's, my wife's brother. From Cape May, we traveled along the sea-coast to Egg Harbor. We swam our horses over Egg Harbor River, and went over ourselves in canoes ; and afterward had a meeting at Richard Sumers, which was a large one as could be expected, considering the people live at such distance from each other."
Jacob Spicer, in his Diary, gives us the following estimate of the resources and consumption of the county, in the year 1758.
" And as my family consists of twelve in number, including my- self, it amounts to each individual £7 3s. 83d. annual consumption of foreign produce and manufacture. But perhaps the populace in general may not live at a proportionate expense with my family, I'll only suppose their foreign consumption may stand at £4 to an indi- vidual, as the county consisted of 1100 souls in the year 1746, since which time it has increased; then the consumption of this county of foreign manufacture and produce, will stand at £4400 annually, near one half of which will be linens.
-
192
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
£1200
"The Stock article of the county is about.
There is at least ten boats belonging to the county which carry oysters ; and admit they make three trips fall and three trips spring, each, and carry 100 bushels each trip, that makes 6000 bushels at what they neat 2s. per bushel, 600
There is 14 pilots, which at £30 per annum,
420
Mitten article for the present year, 500
Cedar posts, 300 500
White Cedar lumbar,
Add for boards,
200
Pork and gammons, 200
Deer skins and venison hams,
120
Furs and feathers, 100
Hides and tallow, 120
Flax seed, neats' tongues, bees' wax, and myrtle, 80
Tar,
60
Coal, 30
£4430
Annual consumption of county, €4400
Add public taxes, . 160
For a Presbyterian minister, 60
For a Baptist minister, 40
Education of youth, . 90
Doctor for man and beast, 100
4850
£420
In arear £420, to be paid by some uncertain fund, or left as a debt."
It appears by the above statement, the mitten article of trade in 1758 amounted to the sum of £500, which was quite a reward to the female industry of the county. The manner in which the mitten trade was first established, is related in a letter from Dr. Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, dated Passy, July 26th, 1748, “ on the benefits and evils of luxury."
" The skipper of the shallop employed between Cape May and Philadelphia, had done us some service, for which he refused to be
193
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
paid. My wife, understanding he had a daughter, sent her a pre- sent of a new-fashioned cap. Three years afterward, this skipper being at my house with an old farmer of Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the cap and how much his daughter had been pleased with it; but, said he, 'it proved a dear cap to our congregation.' How so ? 'When my daughter appeared with it at meeting, it was so much admired, that all the girls resolved to get such caps from Philadelphia ; and my wife and I computed that the whole would not have cost less than one hundred pounds.' 'True,' said the far- mer, 'but you do not tell all the story. I think the cap was never- theless an advantage to us; for it was the first thing that put our girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale at Philadelphia, that they might have wherewithal to buy caps and ribbons there ; and you know that that industry has continued, and is likely to continue and increase to a much greater value, and answer better purposes.' Upon the whole, I was more reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since not only the girls were made happier by having fine caps, but Philadelphians by the supply of warm mittens."*
"March 13th, 1761 .- The election of Representatives began ; and on the 14th, it was ended, when the poll was :-
"Jacob Spicer, 72; Aaron Leaming, 112; Joseph Corson, 41. Whole amount of votes polled, 225. Spicer and Leaming elected."¡
In the year 1752, an association of a large number of persons was formed for the purpose of purchasing of the West Jersey So- ciety their interest in the county, having particular regard to the Natural Privileges. These privileges, consisting of fishing and fowling and all the articles of luxury and use obtained from the bays and sounds, were held in high estimation ; and it was difficult to name a valuation upon a right so endeared to the people as this. This association being slow and cautious in its movements was no doubt astounded, in the year 1756, to find that Jacob Spicer, upon his own responsibility, had superceded them, and had purchased
* Franklin's Works, 2nd Vol., page 577.
+ A Leaming's Memoirs.
13
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
the right of the Society, through their acknowledged agent, Dr. Johnson, of Perth Amboy, not only in the Natural Privileges, but in the unlocated land in the whole county. Spicer, although he did not attempt or desire to prevent the people from using and occupy- ing these privileges as they had heretofore done, received for his share in the transaction a large amount of obloquy and hostile feel- ing, which required all the energy and moral courage he possessed to encounter. He was publicly arraigned by the people; the follow- ing account being from his own pen.
"Went to hear myself arraigned by Mr. Aaron Leaming and others before the Public, at the Presbyterian Meeting-house, for buy- ing the Society's Estate at Cape May, and at same time desired to know whether I would sell or not. I said not. He then threatened me with a suit in chancery to compel me to abide by the first asso- ciation, though the people had declined it, and many of the original subscribers had dashed out their names. I proposed to abide the suit, and told him he might commence it. If I should see a bargain to my advantage, then I told the people I should be inclined to sell them the natural privileges, if I should advance myself equally otherwise; but upon no other footing whatever, of which I would be the judge."*
The following is Aaron Leaming's version of the affair.
" March 26th, 1761 .- About forty people met at the Presbyte- rian Meeting-house to ask Mr. Spicer if he purchased the Society's reversions at Cape May for himself or for the people. He answers he bought it for himself; and upon asking him whether he will release to the people, he refuses, and openly sets up his claim to the oysters, to Basses' titles, and other deficient titles, and to a resurvey, whereupon the people broke up in great confusion, as they have been for some considerable time past."}
Jacob Spicer, at his death in 1765, left these privileges which seemed to be so exciting to the people, to his son Jacob, who, about
* Spicer's Diary.
1 A Leaming's Memoirs.
195
EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
the year 1795, conveyed by deed to a company or association of persons, his entire right to the natural privileges, which were used and viewed as a bona fide estate, and the Legislature passed acts of incorporation, giving them plenary powers to defend themselves from foreign and domestic aggression, thus virtually acknowledging the validity of their title. Previous to the year 1840, a suit was mstituted in East Jersey, the result of which was favorable to the proprietors ; but on an appeal to the United States' Supreme Court from the Circuit below, the decision was reversed, confirming the right of the State to all the immunities and privileges of the water thereof, barring out the proprietary claims altogether, and establish- ing the principle that the State possessed the right as the guardian and for the use of the whole people, in opposition to the claims of individuals or associations, however instituted or empowered.
In June following he offered them his whole landed estate and the natural privileges in the county, excepting his farm in Cold Spring Neck, and a right for his family in the privileges, for £7000, which offer was declined .*
He further states : "Mr. James Godfrey, in behalf of the Upper Precinct, applied to me to purchase the natural privileges in that precinct. I told him I should be glad to gratify that precinct, and please myself also ; and could I see a prospect of making a good foreign purchase, and thereby exchange a storm for a calm to equal advantage to my posterity, I should think it advisable ; and in that case, if I sold, I should by all means give the public a preference, but at present did not incline to sell. I remarked to him this was a delicate affair, that I did not know well how to conduct myself, for I was willing to please the people, and at the same time to do my posterity justice, and steer clear of reflection. Re- collecting that old Mr. George Taylor, to the best of my memory, obtained a grant for the Five-Mile Beach and the Two-Mile Beach, and, if I mistake not, the cedar-swamps and pines for his own use,
* Spicer's Diary.
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EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY.
and his son John Taylor reconveyed it for about £9, to buy his wife Margery a calico gown, for which he was derided for his simplicity."
In the contest of our forefathers for independence, nothing praise- worthy can be said of the other counties of the State, that would not apply to Cape May. She was ever ready to meet the demands made upon her by the Legislature and the necessities of the times. whether that demand was for money or men. Being exposed, in having a lengthened water frontier, to the attacks and incursions of the enemy, it was necessary to keep in readiness a flotilla of boats and privateers, which were owned, manned, and armed by the people, and were successful in defending the coast against the British as well as refugees. Many prizes and prisoners were taken, which stand announced in the papers of the day as creditable to the parties concerned .* Acts of valor and daring might be related of this band of boatmen, which would not discredit the name of a Somers, or brush a laurel from the brow of their compatriots in arms. The women were formed into committees, for the purpose of preparing clothing for the army ; and acts of chivalry and forti- tude were performed by them, which were equally worthy of their fame and the cause they served. To record a single deserving act, would do injustice to a part; and to give a place to all who signalized themselves, would swell this sketch beyond its prescribed limits.
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